Comment by xnx
7 days ago
> And epanet-js is a tool that you can run in a browser - full simulations with a WASM-based engine. It’s competing with expensive old-school software that costs $16,000 a year, runs exclusively on Windows, is priced by “pipes”, and uses the same engine, EPANET. This is so much better in comparison. A radical improvement.
I have absolutely no use for epanet-js, but this is so cool. Exactly what free software is supposed to do.
I suppose it's correct to say EPANET competes with expensive commercial offerings, but it's actually available completely free:
https://www.epa.gov/water-research/epanet
I know someone who uses it to design clean drinking water distribution systems in rural communities in Central America. They would not be able to do what they do if they had to pay for an expensive commercial licence.
Desktop EPANET is still windows-only though, so having a browser version is pretty cool.